November 1992, Page 8, 9

Words To Remember

The Middle East Peace Talks: From Round 6 to Round 7 Sept. 25-Oct. 21, 1992

"We have to negotiate within the framework of American politics. Such is the Middle East. We would like to go faster, but we are caught within the time-table of the U.S. presidential elections."
-Palestinian delegation adviser Faisal Husseini, Sept. 20, 1992

"Selling the Israeli public onthe possible need to give up part of the Golan Heights is proving to be more of a challenge for Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin than it had seemed when he raised the idea two weeks ago. . . An opinion poll published [Sept. 18 revealed that] 50 percent said that under no circumstances would they yield any part of the Golan, while 34 percent said they would give back but a small part. Only 6 percent said they would hand it all back."
-Jerusalem correspondent Clyde Haberman, The New York Times, Sept. 23, 1992

"Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Charaa, meeting at the United Nations with Acting Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger, told reporters that his government was prepared for 'total peace' with Israel in exchange for 'total withdrawal.'"
-Staff writer Jackson Diehl, The Washington Post, Sept. 24, 1992

"This round has proven, at least from our side, that peace is possible between Israel and the Arab side and that this historic opportunity should not be wasted. . . Israel has to withdrawal completely from all the territories it occupied in June 1967. Peace is at hand if we are ready to work toward it."
-Syrian chief negotiator Mouwafak Al Allaf, Sept. 24, 1992

"We have offered the establishment of a Palestinian administrative council [PAC], in order to deal with the majority of the walks of life of the Palestinians in the territories, including infrastructure aspects, such as land uses and water to be negotiated. We put on the table an unprecedented offer for free general elections for the Palestinians in the territories, saying that the elected members will be accountable to their electorate, and will discharge their powers and responsibilities per the agreement. We have offered vast authorities, powers and responsibilities for the PAC."
-Israel delegations spokesman Yossi Gal, Sept. 24, 1992

"We feel that there are several basic or essential ingredients missing in their positions and their proposals and their responses, basically the issue of territoriality and the applicability of the geographic dimension to whatever agreements or negotiations are carried out."
-Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi, Sept. 24, 1992

"Palestinian negotiators say their credibility in the occuped West Bank and Gaza Strip diminishes each time they return from Washington without producing any concrete change in the conditions of the occupation."
-Staff writer Jackson Diehl, The Washington Post, Sept. 25, 1992

"While the negotiators traded papers in Washington, Israelis plunged into a major national debate about whether part or all of the occupied Golan Heights could be handed back to Syria in exchange for peace. Syrian officials spoke in public for the first time about making peace with the Jewish state, and state-run Syrian media began carrying the first full reports about negotiations with Israel."
-Staff writer Jackson Diehl, The Washington Post, Sept. 25, 1992

"Israel will not tackle questions of territory until Damascus has said it is ready for total peace, diplomatic relations and normalization and that it is prepared to sign a peace treaty which does not depend on progress at the peace talks with other Arab delegations."
-Analyst Mark Heller, Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies, Tel Aviv University, Sept. 27, 1992

"These negotiations have been billed as the first 'face to face' fullscale Arab-Israeli peace talks in history. But, said a senior Israeli official, they are really 'back to back' talks, because both sides spend most of their time with their backs to each other and their eyes looking homeward, being careful not to say anything that will get them in trouble with their constituencies. . . An Israeli negotiator remarked that his government simply was not going to say the 'w-word'-how far it might be ready to withdraw from the Golan-until it knew what sort of peace the Syrians were ready to offer. And the Syrians, he said, were not ready to define the 'p-word'-how much peace to give Israel-until they are assured that they can get all their land back."
-Diplomatic correspondent Thomas Friedman, The New York Times, Sept. 27, 1992

"People like me are tired of wars. Four wars are behind me. When my first son was born 23 years ago, we promised ourselves he would not have to serve in the army. He did, and now a second son is. You simply get tired. We want to have problems like the rest of the world. The question is how much risk to take for peace."
-Israeli historian Haim Goren, Sept. 27, 1992

"Leftist [Israeli] Education Minister Shulamit Aloni said Syria had a legal right to get the Golan back in exchange for a peace arrangement under which Israelis 'would have the right to go to Damascus, scrounge around in the flea markets and bring back all kinds of junk for their friends, as they now do in Egypt.'"
-Jerusalem correspondent David Hoffman, The Washington Post, Sept. 28, 1992

"I was shocked to read in the papers that I would give back the whole Golan Heights. That's total nonsense. I by no means authorized this, nor had she any basis to say it. . . I made it clear that we cannot continue to maintain the present coalition if the phenomenon of Shulamit Aloni's statements continues."
-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Sept. 28, 1992

"[Israel] does not want to give anything to the Palestinians while aiming at normalizing relations with Syria. . . No peace or stability can be achieved in the region by skipping over the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people."
-PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Sept. 28, 1992

"We find Israeli talk shameful about an Israeli intention to move ahead in negotiations with one Arab party and to slow down progress with the others. There must be simultaneous movement on all fronts."
-Egyptian presidential aide Osama El-Baz, Sept. 28, 1992

"On and near Mount Hermon, the 7,294-foot peak at the northern end of the Golan, Israel maintains sensitive listening posts that can detect troop and airplane movements. Damascus is only 37 miles away. . . Some private analysts have suggested that Israel could be compensated with alternative early-warning systems, perhaps through satellite technology or electronic surveillance planes, some of which are believed to be already in use. . . Some have suggested that Israel could return sovereignty to Syria while leasing the posts. Shai Feldman, senior research associate at the Jaffe Center, said an international peace-keeping force could guard against surprises, an idea that the United States has already broached."
-Jerusalem correspondent David Hoffman, The Washington Post, Sept. 28, 1992

"The Syrians would have to know that there are U.S. forces that have to be broken through to get to Israel. It has to be from a power the Syrians have respect for. It can't be token. It has to have a deterrent role, and not be from the Fiji Islands."
-Shai Feldman, Jaffe Center, Sept. 28, 1992

"Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin said yesterday that a summit with Syrian President Hafez Assad would be necessary to conclude a peace treaty with Damascus. . . Rabin gave Syria a clear priority in Israel's negotiations with its Arab neighbors, including Palestinians living on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. He appeared determined to conclude a treaty with at least Syria in the coming year. . . Rabin refused to say. . . what proportion of the strategic Golan Heights, seized by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War, he would return for 'real peace,' contending that such negotiations are premature. . . Syria's offer last week of 'total peace for total withdrawal' was 'too vague,' Rabin said, asking Damascus to clarify 'total peace' and whether it was referring to the Golan Heights alone or all Israeli-occupied Arab territory."
-Jerusalem correspondent Michael Parks, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 29, 1992

"Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Charaa. . . insisted that Israel must return the entire Golan Heights as part of any settlement with his country. He rejected an Israeli proposal for a meeting between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and President Hafez Al-Assad."
-United Nations correspondent Paul Lewis, The New York Times, Sept. 29, 1992

"We do not think that Syria should accept a partial withdrawal. It is land for peace: all the land for total peace. The notion of, or the expression of, territorial compromise is a wrong one, and it will certainly contribute to the failure of the whole process. . . There is a timetable that the final settlement will be negotiated three years from the beginning of [Palestinian self-government], so it is better to start today so the final settlement will be in three years and not longer."
-Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, Sept. 30, 1992

"Talks in Washington, suspended last week until Oct. 21, failed to bridge a wide, lingering gap between Syria's demand for a return of the entire Golan Heights and Israel's insistence on a full-blown peace treaty that is not linked to simultaneous Israeli talks with the Palestinians and other Arab delegations."
-Jerusalem correspondent Clyde Haberman, The New York Times, Oct. 2, 1992

"Deep disagreement exists among West Bank Palestinians over the value of continuing the peace talks-a question that is increasingly being aired in the open. In a Jewish-Arab political dialogue in the West Bank town of Beit Sahour last week, some Palestinians said that Palestinians should 'take what we can get' from the current peace talks, while others said autonomy talks would lead to a dead end. Most of the Palestinians agreed, however, that the Palestinian delegation should not budge from its 'principles' demanding that Israel somehow acknowledge Palestinian aspirations for statehood before serious autonomy talks begin. That point of view dismayed left-wing Israelis who argued that pragmatic action, not declarations, will gain the Palestinians a state."
-Correspondent Elaine Ruth Fletcher, Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 6, 1992

"We are being held to account by our constituencies. We have to report our leadership and also report to the opposition, and to the masses in villages, towns and refugee camps. People want to see that Israel is serious about the peace process."
-Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, Oct. 6, 1992

"Israel announced tonight that it would no longer object to participation by Palestinians from outside the Israeli-occupied territories in Middle East peace talks on regional issues such as refugees and economic development-By announcing that Israel would now attend the talks, [Foreign Minister] Peres was signaling a more flexible approach. However, he said Israel would continue to seek restrictions on Palestinian participants. He said they could not be members of the Palestine National Congress, the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which Israel considers a terrorist organization, or be residents of East Jerusalem, which Israel regards as part of its unified capital."
-Jerusalem correspondent David Hoffman, The Washington Post, Oct. 9, 1992

"Israeli officials suggest that they expect no breakthroughs when the negotiations resume in Washington [Oct. 21], in good measure because all parties will be marking time until after the United States presidential election on Nov. 3. . . Israel's chief negotiator said tonight that he would not bring along new ideas to Washington and that he thought the Syrians were ready for compromise. Syria has said it would agree to a total peace with Israel, but only in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab territories. Israel says it is prepared to give Syria back only a part of the Golan Heights, and it has thus far refused to discuss the possibility of future territorial concessions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip."
-Jerusalem correspondent Clyde Haberman, The New York Times, Oct. 16, 1992

"Time is not unlimited for the Israeli government."
-Chief Israeli negotiator with Syria Itamar Rabinovich, Oct. 16, 1992

"If by December we have not achieved something concrete, then I think it will be very difficult to describe the process as an ongoing, self-moving, self-developing process."
-Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi, Oct. 16, 1992

"For now, those supporting the talks have the upper hand. But their position is not solid, and within the Palestinian delegation to the Washington round there was concern that the prison strike, if pushed too far, could have led to deaths that would have given them no choice but to stay at home. . . In Tunis, the Palestine Liberation Organization formally endorsed the next Washington meeting. But PLO leaders, acknowledging the strength of the so-called rejectionists, warned that the peace talks would collapse unless Israel agreed that United Nations land-for-peace resolutions applied to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip."
-Jerusalem correspondent Clyde Haberman, The New York Times, Oct. 18, 1992